Joshua Sirefman

Any good development firm worth its salt has got to have a former City Hall staffer or two on hand to navigate the bureaucracy. Last month, Brookfield Properties sent its latest government hire, Joshua Sirefman, into a meeting to help present the company’s multi-billion dollar plan for the West Side rail yards to a joint city-Metropolitan Transportation Authority selection committee.  read more »

Joshua Sirefman, the chairman of the city's Industrial Development Agency, indicated that the tax breaks for Hudson Yards would likely pass pretty much as proposed. "I don't think it will change much," he said after this morning's 45-minute hearing on the $650 million in incentives, although he added that the public's comments would be circulated to other members of his board. (There was the expected dissension by fiscal watchdog organizations and the expected support of business associations.) "What we heard today was pretty much the same as what we had been hearing in meetings with different groups." The I.D.A. board, which is heavily weighted towards the mayoral administration but includes city Comptroller Bill Thompson and borough president appointees, meets to vote on the proposal Tuesday. -Matthew Schuerman

Joshua Sirefman is returning to the Economic Development Corporation as interim president, filling the spot left by Andrew Alper, who officially left June 2. The interim part is bit mystifying--Sirefman was chief operating officer of the E.D.C. for a while before becoming chief of staff to Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, such that he would not be a long-shot candidate himself. But Doctoroff's e-mail announcing the change said, "[T]he search for a permanent replacement continues," suggesting they are looking to hook a larger fish. Ostensibly, the announcement (first reported on The Daily Politics) is a disappointment for Kate Ascher, but Sirefman essentially outranked her anyway, so that the rumor she was ascendant was just that--rumor. -Matthew Schuerman